Tutelage
by Fedzgurl
Summary: Lily Evans is a whiz at charms. Severus Snape is best in their year at potions. Both have a good amout of academic advantages to offer but might there be something more? WarningDisclaimer in chapter 1 title subject to change
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Obviously, I don't own any of the characters mentioned here – and in fact, after finishing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, I think the general idea behind this fic may belong to JK Rowling as well. But, alas…

**Warning:** This story will contain spoilers from both OotP and HBP, as it is my attempt to add some backstory to the little bit of history JKR has given us, as well as to add a bit of an explanation to the little bit that we already know. The time frame for this is obviously Marauder's Era, beginning shortly after Christmas break, their fifth year, and going until the afternoon of their Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL exam.

Feedback is always appreciated – so without further Adieu…

**Chapter 1**

Lily Evans sat by herself in the library revising her charms essay, infinitely glad she had finally been able to get rid of James bloody Potter and his annoying gaggle of friends as she was able to finally concentrate on her work, rather than the boy's annoying tricks showing off his transfiguration skills. The paragraph she was currently working on about the silencing charm had been giving her hell for the better part of twenty minutes, and she was infinitely glad she didn't have to deal with the prat and his friends. She smiled as she finally finished the paragraph, but as she dipped her quill into her ink well she noticed the hairs on the back of her neck begin to prickle, the uncomfortable feeling of being watched washing over her. Figuring it was Potter and the terrible trio coming back to torment her some more, she ignored the urge to glance around the room until she had finished the paper.

Her resolve remained strong, even as she heard footsteps approaching her table near the corner of the dimly lit library; until she noticed the slim, pale hand drop a handful of coins on the table, directly in front of her paper. She looked up to discover a decidedly uncomfortable looking Severus Snape standing in front of her. The initial shock of the Slytherin approaching her wore off as she observed him in the near deafening silence surrounding them; although his robes seemed rather threadbare and were too short for his arms, they didn't bare the smattering of potions stains he was typically seen in, and while his hair was still lank and hanging in his face, the severe part in the center of his face appeared to have been done with a ruler, and the ends were slightly damp and curling on their own volition – a far cry from the unwashed and unkept look that typically brought him so much ridicule. Even as she took in his appearance, Snape seemed to be determined to focus on anything but Lily, his eyes shooting around the room as if he were expecting an attack. Finally, Lily broke the silence.

"All right, Snape?" She asked quietly, half wondering if the strange and twitchy boy had even noticed she was sitting there.

His dark eyes instantly bore down on hers, but after opening his mouth a fraction as if to speak, they closed and he released a sigh. He tipped his head down so that his face was totally concealed by the black curtain of hair surrounding it, before muttering "Idayferhelptutorinarms."

She stared at him as he began to play with a string hanging off of the right sleeve of his robe, his face still completely hidden in a mass of ebony hair. Hesitatingly, Lily tried to figure out what the boy was about. "Sorry… I didn't catch that."

Snape drew a deep breath and straightened to his full height, allowing his hair to drift back to framing his face and bringing his eyes back into view so they could lock on hers. Very quietly, he replied, "I've been having a lot of trouble in charms, and the classmates in my house," she couldn't help but notice his slight sneer directed towards his Slytherin yearmates, "find themselves too busy preparing for OWLS to spare a moment's help. I was wondering if you'd be able to tutor me a couple of nights a week; I am willing to pay, of course," he gestured hastily towards the coins on the table.

Lily was completely taken back. Snape? Severus Snape, the greasy Slytherin know-it-all, was asking for help in a class. Not just asking for help, asking her, a Gryffindor for help. A muggleborn Gryffindor at that. Feeling more than a bit uneasy, she quickly ran through her possibilities. It could well be a trick – but Snape had always seemed considerably different than his fellow Slytherins, particularly now that they were getting older and a majority of his former gang had left the school… and she never actually had heard him say anything derogatory about Muggleborns. And while she knew he was brilliant in potions and arithmancy and had heard he did very well in defense and history classes, she supposed that she had never really heard about or seen his performance in other classes. He certainly did seem like it pained him to ask for the assistance, and she doubted he would be a good enough actor to fake the slight flush she had noticed on his pale cheeks when he said the word tutor.

And _gods,_ it would _kill _Potter to know she was hanging around with Snape instead of him.

Stealing a glance at the still silent boy in front of her she couldn't help but take in his dilapidated robes, and a pang of guilt struck her in regards to the small pile of silver coins she knew were still lying on the table, intended for her. She figured that would be best dealt with first. "Snape," she said softly, causing his eyes to once more fix their unwavering stare on her face, "I don't want your money."

His facial expression was completely inscrutable, even though his skin seemed to have gone even a shade lighter than it usually was. He responded with a nearly inaudible "…oh." And a fleeting glance the change at the table, but instead of moving to scoop them up his head again tilted forward as his eyes began shooting around the room once more.

The pained look about him as he stood rooted in place instantly made Lily regret what she'd said, and she tried to infuse as much caring in her voice as possible while she slowly pushed the coins across the desk towards Snape. "But… if you need help I'm willing to meet with you a few times a week, you don't have to pay for it."

His cheeks flushed so badly at this she could see the color even through the hair obscuring his face, and his hands shook a bit as he snatched the money off the table. "No, I couldn't…" he stared at his shoes for a moment, then turned on a heel and muttered "sorry to bother you…" as he began to slouch away.

"Snape!" she exclaimed, calling him back louder than she'd intended. He stopped as quickly as if she'd thrown something at him, and the librarian, Madam Pince, fixed them both with a disapproving glare. Slowly, Severus turned back to her, a slight frown line between his eyes and an unfamiliar look of confusion in his expression. She beckoned him back towards her, to avoid inflicting Pince's wrath again.

"Look… I've been keeping up with potions, but I'm not particularly comfortable with it, and most of my housemates are pants as you've seen." Snape met her eyes for a second, thus encouraging her to go on. "If you're willing to sit and revise potions with me a night a week, I'll reserve one for charms with you… we can pay each other that way."

While she knew most of her yearmates would tell her it was a sign she was going crazy, she swore that a ghost of a smile appeared on Snape's lips for a moment, but before she could convince herself it wasn't an illusion his eyes had quickly whipped left and right, as if checking for people listening in on them.

"That would be acceptable I suppose, I think I have a fairly good understanding in potions at the moment." He said, in a slightly haughty tone that reminded her just whom she was conversing with. "We ah…" his eyes flitted around the room once again, and his tone dropped noticeably. "We obviously can not meet here… there is a room off of the entrance hall, near the door to the dungeons, that hasn't been used in a few years. We could use that."

"Sounds good – would tomorrow night work?" Lily asked, silently wondering at her own judgment.

Snape nodded jerkily, then turned away suddenly and stalked out of the room without another word. Lily watched him with a detached interest – his hands were firmly locked around the straps of the backpack on his shoulders, and his step was just as quick and hitched as usual. As he practically twitched his way out the door, Lily couldn't help but wonder what she'd gotten herself into.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: **The same disclaimer in chapter 1 still applies. And I'm not making any money off of this.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed so far, I hope you'll continue to enjoy and feedback!

**Chapter 2**

A full and pale moon lit the winter night's sky and cast a faint glow into the corridor as Lily walked briskly towards the entrance hall. She was infinitely glad that the self-proclaimed Marauders weren't milling about the common room as usual, holding her up or inquiring about where she would be going by herself in the evening. As she thought on it, she hadn't seen the boys since shortly after dinner – yet she still couldn't help but check over her shoulder occasionally to ensure that they weren't following her. Although she was more than a bit uncomfortable regarding this meeting with Snape, she knew it best to give the boy a fair shot; and having the golden Gryffindors break in on their study meeting would end in nothing but disaster.

She stopped outside the door he'd mentioned to meet her at, and steeled her spine before opening it – half expecting some minor curse to come flying her way. Instead she was met with a musty smelling room that looked like it had been returned to after a long absence of activity; although dust and cobwebs were still inches thick around the corners of the room, the desks in the front had been cleaned a bit and were now covered in bits of scratch parchment and nubs of candle sticks.

The quick snap of a cupboard door slamming shut alerted her to a dark corner of the room, where Snape now sat in front of the door with a look of panic in his dark eyes. Upon recognizing her, it was quickly replaced with a look of surprise. "You came…" he breathed, so quietly she could barely hear him, and figuring the words weren't meant for her ears anyway she made her way to one of the front desks, dropping her bag onto it.

"Now, you said you wanted to go over charms work…" she said airily, as if it were a perfectly normal for her to be meeting up with strange Slytherin boys in dark and deserted classrooms.

"Er… right." Snape responded, quickly standing from the floor and making his way to the desk next to her. Lily couldn't help but notice the cupboard door swing open a bit as he left it, nor spot the stack of old books of which she'd never seen in any of her classes, the old worn cauldron, or the small jumble of what appeared to be nicked potions ingredients standing on its shelves. Her covert inspection of the open door was quickly ended when Snape dropped his own bag next to hers, and pulled out a decrepit looking copy of the fifth year charms book. Setting his wand down next to it he began flipping through the pages at a near frantic pace, never looking up at her.

"So…" Lily said, not quite sure yet she saw the point of her presence yet. "You, er… study here often?"

"Usually."

The answer, although short, was spoken in as conversational a voice as she'd ever heard the voice use, so she pursued the topic, suddenly intrigued by the number of things in the room – it had been a hide out for a while. "Erm, how did you find it?"

"Stumbled upon it." Snape answered shortly, sounding a bit tenser this time, his eyes still remaining on the book.

Silently, Lily couldn't help but wonder if that meant he'd been chased into it or hidden there, likely from the wretched boys in her class. "Well… uh… it's rather…"

"It is quiet." He replied tersely, which she took to mean the conversation about the room was over.

_I was rather thinking lonely_, she thought to herself, shocked at the realization. The only person she had really expected to find pity for tonight had been herself, in the case that the session went badly.

Snape seemed to have finally finished assaulting his charms book, and sat looking at her through a curtain of greasy black hair, wand in hand. "I er… I am still not up to par on the summoning charm, and Flitwick hasn't been much of a help in figuring out what I am doing incorrectly."

Lily schooled her facial features to not betray her surprise in what Snape had just said. The entire Gryffindor charms class had effectively mastered the summoning charm over a week ago, and unless the Slytherin class was behind them, it meant that Snape's work had been ineffective for well over two weeks.

"Oh…" she trailed off, not entirely sure how to respond tactfully. "Well – yes, I can see where that would be a problem. Um, let's see what the problem is." She smiled encouragingly as he sighed and pointed his wand into a corner of the room.

"_Accio jar"_ he stated smoothly, and the jar in question – which appeared to be filled with pickled beetle's eyes – carefully raised itself off the desk it sat on and hovered a few inches from its surface. Snape frowned and, with a sigh, muttered a quick _"Finite incantetem,"_ allowing the jar to fall back to the desk.

"_Accio Jar" _he commanded with a bit more force, and while the jar rose quicker and higher off the desk, it still remained stubbornly above the exact spot it had been sitting before. Glaring at the object suspended in air, Snape stabbed at it and shouted.

"_ACCIO SODDING JAR!" _and in an instant the jar flew back against the stone wall of the classroom.

Lily muttered a quick and quiet _"reparo"_ and the jar returned to its whole form, beetles eyes dripping down the wall behind it. She turned to Snape, a frownline of her own forming between her brows. "You did the wrong wand movement on the final incantation – that was obviously a banishing charm."

By now Snape had crossed his arms over his thin chest and leaned back in his chair, petulantly staring at the desktop without responding to her.

"But…" she continued quietly, "the first two attempts – "

"Were the wrong buggering charm." Snape interrupted her in a waspish tone.

This time Lily leaned back in her own chair, completely perplexed. He'd said the correct incantation and had the correct wand movement, and yet the jar had responded as if he had cast a completely different spell.

"Is that actually your wand, Snape?" She asked, at a complete loss for what was going on.

"Yes." He replied shortly, before adding, "It was matched to me by Mr. Ollivander, I've tried that excuse in the past."

Lily frowned still deeper. "It's acted up on you before?"

"Once, in transfigurations." He replied, still not looking at her.

_Ah yes_, Lily thought to herself, she'd remembered that story rather well. Snape had received a months long detention and lost Slytherin 100 house points – and the house cup competition, when the guinea pig he'd switched from a guinea fowl came complete with fangs and rabies, and had viciously attacked Professor McGonagall before she could change it back.

Suppressing a smirk, Lily instead frowned and turned back to the task at hand. "It's just… I've never heard of a wand so blatantly disobeying a command before…"

"Apparently I'm not capable of doing it." Snape interrupted shortly.

Lily stared at him for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. There was no way someone as brilliant as Snape could be incapable of a simple summoning charm. "How about you try it again?" She asked, moving around the desk to stand over his shoulder. "I'll have a better look from here." She added, before he could make a comment.

Snape raised his wand without speaking this time, and Lily was careful to notice the fact that his hand trembled a bit as he pointed it towards the corner of the room. After a pause he seemed to still himself, before commanding the wand yet again. _"Accio jar."_

For a fleeting second it looked as though he'd got it, but no sooner had Lily's brain registered that the jar was making forward progress, it just as quickly moved back and hovered over its starting position.

With a sigh Snape ended the spell and the jar yet again dropped to the tabletop; then he turned to her with a … nervous? … look in his eye. Lily was completely thrown. Without another word, she pointed her own wand toward the dark corner, commanding _"Accio Jar."_

In less than a second the jar was zooming towards them, narrowly missing Snape's head and ending gracefully in Lily's outstretched hand. "Well… that rules out a jinx." She murmured to herself as she crossed the room to return the jar to its place. She couldn't help but notice the fact that Snape's eyes flicked away from her when she turned back to him.

Clearing her throat so that he'd give her his attention, she stepped in front of him to give her advice. "You have it down for the most part, you're just making it too difficult. All you have to do is point your wand, hold it steady, and say the incantation – and concentrate on the object and what you need it to do."

As he nodded, she moved back to her spot behind him and watched as he raised his wand to the corner yet again. _"Accio jar."_

This time there was no hesitation, the jar was zooming perfectly toward the desk they were sitting at, when suddenly a gasp from Snape sent it into a nosedive and it shattered yet again on the floor. "Bugger…" he muttered, along with _"reparo"_ and they watched as the shards of glass reassembled themselves on the floor.

"Concentrate, Snape…" Lily whispered, but before she had another word out of her mouth he had commanded the jar again, and this time it soared directly into his outstretched hand.

"Brilliant!" She cried, not entirely meaning to react, and thoroughly surprised with the sudden surge of pride she felt – as if she had actually been the one accomplishing the spell. It took the same amount of time to gush as it did to notice how badly Snape's cheeks were flushed compared to their usual pallid color. "Took me bloody long enough." He muttered, staring at the wand in his hand so that his hair fell onto his face, obscuring his eyes from Lily's view.

"Why… why don't you try another. Just to make sure you've got it down." Lily mentioned, hoping it would take their minds off of each others reactions to the spell.

Snape nodded and yet again pointed his wand towards the cupboard in the corner, this time calling _"Accio book."_

An old and moldy looking tome came bursting out of the cupboard's door, soaring through the air and sliding to a stop on the table directly in front of Snape. "I'd have to say you've got it down." Lily responded with a smile, but a lack of reaction from him caused her to look down at the book herself.

It appeared to be a used copy of a potions textbook, but not one their class had ever used before. Upon looking at it closer… "Isn't that the NEWT level book?" Lily questioned out loud.

Snape suddenly looked as if he had made a terrible mistake. "Er… yeah…" he fumbled with the book, quickly trying to jamb it into his bookbag. "It was my mother's – I… there are some interesting things in it, I've taken to reading it when I get the chance. Just to be ahead.. and, er…" He was horribly flustered as he closed the latch on his bag, and while Lily knew nothing of Snape's life, let alone his family or mother, the unfamiliar gleam in his eye told her now definitely wasn't the time to ask.

"Don't worry about it, I was just trying to figure out where I'd seen it before." Lily said quickly, and Snape did seem to calm a bit from the reassurance. A glance at her watch told her that it was nearly curfew, so she stowed her own wand and book and stood from the table. "Well, I need to get back to the tower – I'm glad we were able to make some progress tonight, Snape."

Snape was still sitting at the desk, digging the handle of his wand into its surface, seemingly unaware of the faint pulse of silver light that its end issued upon every pass. "Yeah, thank you for all of your help." He said, not taking his eyes off of the handle passing over the rough surface of the old wood. "And, erm, and thank you for coming." He added much more quietly.

Lily threw her bag over her shoulder as she walked to the door, before remembering the other end of their agreement. "So," she said with her hand on the door, turning back to Snape who was still staring at the desktop, "I'll see you Friday for potions?"

"Potions was yesterday." He responded idly, still refusing to look up.

"No, I helped you with charms, you said you would assist me in my potions work – or are you going to be busy on Friday?" Lily asked, a bit exasperated.

Snape's wand abruptly stopped its mapping of the desk contours, and he looked up through his curtain of black hair as if in surprise. "Oh, right, that. No, I really… if you want to meet again on Friday I can make it work with my schedule."

Lily frowned at his answer. "Well, if you had other plans…"

"Just bring your work and I can see what we can do with it." Snape interrupted, staring at the desk again and speaking to his hands.

"Okay, I'll see you here then, same time." She opened the door and began to exit, as Snape's entire demeanor seemed to be saying that his last command had been her dismissal, but she couldn't miss the uncharacteristically soft voice she heard as the door clicked shut behind her.

"R-right, I'll see you then."

With a small smile Lily set off up the stairs toward Gryffindor tower, surprised that she was finding that she didn't regret taking up Snape's offer at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** In regards to the comment on Chapter 2 – I know that at the moment this may not seem to be supporting canon, but please trust me; I have my reasons.

I can't say much else without giving a lot away, so I'll just add that the disclaimers from chapter 1 and 2 still apply.

**Chapter 3**

Two nights later, Lily slowly entered what she had now dubbed 'the study room,' to find Snape sitting back at the desk he'd used for their previous meeting; only on this night it had been turned to face the door. He quickly jammed the parchment he had been writing on into the book next to him and pushed it to the side of the desk, inclining his head toward her in an awkward greeting. "E-Evans."

"Evening, Snape." She replied smoothly, pretending she didn't notice the look of shock on his face as she pulled a chair from a table near him and sat down across the desk from him. "What were you working on?" She asked, tilting her chin towards what she quickly recognized was the moldy Advanced Potions book.

"Herbology essay." Snape replied quickly, averting his eyes from her and pushing the book farther away from the both of them.

"Yeah, but that's a…" Lily began.

"It's-really-advanced-and-it-has-a-lot-of-information-and-I'm-getting-early-revising-done-so-I-don't-have-to-spend-as-much-time-in-the-library." Snape spit in one breath, a light flush on his pale cheeks and a glint in his dark eyes. Lily was shocked speechless, and the two of them stared across the table in silence.

Finally, after a few beats, the frown line between Snape's eyes began to smooth out, and he pushed the book farther yet away as he asked, "Now… you said you could use some potions work." By the time he looked her in the eye again, she was surprised and yet somehow vindicated to see that he did at least look a bit abashed by his outburst.

Lily nodded dumbly, almost as confused by his sudden change in moods as by his hissing protection of the book, but she managed to pull her potions essay from her bag and hand it across the table toward him.

"It's the Blood Replenishing Solution essay that's…"

"Due Monday before class, I know." Snape interrupted her, twirling his quill between his fingers and becoming immersed in her essay as soon as his eyes had focused on it. His eyes didn't leave the paper for the next twenty minutes, as he carefully read through her paper, muttering to himself as he scratched things out and revised it.

"… and of all the stupid, incompetent…" he began ranting again under his breath, as he neared the end of one of her last paragraphs.

Feeling quite insulted Lily finally spoke up. "You know Snape, if it's really that terrible…"

His eyes flew up from the paper, and he appeared startled; as if he'd forgotten she was in the room. "Oh… no, I mean, it's not… it's that." He sighed and recomposed himself. "A lot of the information is wrong, or at least given under the wrong impressions, and it's because you went by Slughorn's notes and the worthless pile of bathroom tissue he assigned as a book." This time he was sneering worse than he did during most of his confrontations with the Marauders.

"So what's the correct information?" Lily asked, not entirely surprised that Snape was considering himself above the Potion's Master, but interested in what the boy had to say. For all of the times he seemed to argue with Professor Slughorn, and for the fact that no one in the Gryffindor-Slytherin double potions class had seen Snape actually pay attention to Slughorn's directions in the past 5 years – and astonishingly had yet to get less that perfect marks on a potion – she figured that his information would likely be a useful addition to her coursework.

Snape leaned back in his chair a bit, regarding her for a moment, before leaning back forward and pulling the Advanced Potions textbook towards his scrawny chest and leaning onto it. His eyes were filled with a glow that Lily had never seen in them, and the corners of his mouth turned up into what seemed to be an unsure and disused smile. Amazed, Lily listened for the next ten minutes as the boy described, in detail, precisely why Slughorn's methods and descriptions were wrong, and how to improve upon them to actually create an effective solution. Upon finishing, the pseudo-smile left Snape's face, but his eyes continue to flash as he leaned back into his chair again.

"Bloody hell, Snape…" Lily frowned, "you… where did you find all that?"

With the question Snape seemed to return back to himself, pushing the book away and shrugging as he pulled her parchment back to his attention. "Reading other – reliable - sources, mostly… although I have done some testing myself; to see which are more correct."

Remembering the old cauldron and various jars of potions ingredients she had seen in the cupboard a few nights previous, Lily nodded. "Bugger… I should have wrote that down, shouldn't I?"

Snape smirked and turned his eyes on the paper, allowing his hair to fall into his face, before answering. "No, I've written the changes as need be in the margins and on the back – you just need to recopy this."

Lily began to thank him, but was cut off by a snort. "… and the day the idiot figures out how to infuse powdered dragon scales into essence of murtlap under any heat lower than burning pine, I'll hand him the bloody Order of Merlin in Potions myself…"

* * *

Lily set her essay on the potion master's desk Monday following her tutelage with Snape, feeling a sense of confidence she didn't usually get from this class. While she tended to do well enough in Professor Slughorn's classes, she usually fell just short of scoring top marks on her assignments – but after spending the weekend glancing over advanced potions textbooks and confirming the things that Snape had argued in their study room, she felt more than certain she would be receiving an O on the paper, at the very least.

Once the students had returned to their tables, the professor turned to the class. As seemed to be customary at Hogwarts, the potions class was a double period in one of the school dungeons; and as had been every year she had attended the school, Lily was in the class which included all of the Slytherin and Gryffindor students in her year. She had always questioned the safety behind this set up, as the two houses had been sworn enemies for as long as anyone could remember, and yet it remained so year after year.

In the back of her mind, Lily couldn't help but wonder if it were Slughorn's idea – the portly potions professor was certainly air headed enough to think himself more than capable of maintaining control amongst the two classes, although most of the time his manner of control was mainly ignoring the small skirmishes that were bound to happen in any class containing the mix that this one did. As the professor turned to address the class, Lily found herself being sharply removed from her reverie.

"Keep your ingredients packed away, class." He began with a smile, which immediately warned the class that they weren't going to like his next instructions. "Now, for today's brew, we will be switching tables. I want an even mix of each house at each table – anyone remaining with their normal lab partners will get no higher score than an 'A'."

A vast majority of the class groaned, members of each house sending cold looks toward each other.

Lily allowed her eyes to drift around the room, searching for the least dangerous looking Slytherin. She figured it was a lost cause, and even as the braver Gryffindor souls began to move about the room, infiltrating the side of green-clad robes, a solitary figure in the back of the room caught her eye.

Snape was moving about, head bowed and greasy black hair in his eyes as he set up his cauldron and frowned over his ingredients, already reading through his instructions and setting his water to boil. It was perfectly normal for him to be doing this; while she'd never consciously noticed it before, she now realized that whenever group assignments were required, he'd still be the lone student in the back of the dimly lit dungeons, already set up and working before his classmates had sorted themselves.

Shocking herself, Lily noticed a sudden tightness in her chest and throat. For some reason, she was suddenly reminded of the scrawny, sullen, strange looking little dark boy who had been scolded by a Hufflepuff prefect of all things upon their arrival at Hogwarts, after he'd stepped out of the baggage cart rather than the carriages of the Hogwarts Express as all of the other students were supposed to.

Stowing her book and parchment in her cauldron, she grabbed her supplies from the table and slung her bag over her shoulder before trudging towards the back of the room. She felt a few eyes on her back as she was the first student to actually move for the assignment, and in response she elected to sit facing her new partner, back to the rest of the class.

Snape glanced up with a hateful sneer on his face, but it seemed to fade as soon as he realized who it was sitting across from him. "The seat isn't taken, is it?" Lily asked, trying to hide her bemusement by readying a flame beneath her cauldron and glancing over her ingredients list.

The two busied themselves silently for a few minutes, and Lily was beginning to be impressed without secluded Snape's back corner seemed to be – it was as if they were alone again in the study room, until a sneering drawl brought her back to reality.

"Oh, _Severus_," the voice began dramatically, "and here we were lead to believe that you had standards."

Lily turned to glare at the haughty face of Narcissa Black, who was regarding the two of them with a distasteful smirk as Rasbastian Lestrange sat next to her, tittering obliviously. Shockingly for Lily, Snape didn't respond with some scathing retort as usual, but instead tipped his head forward to allow his greasy curtain to spill over his eyes and pushed away from the table, walking to the supply cupboard to retrieve his needed ingredients.

Narcissa's smile became even worse, and to Lily's great surprise she found a way to tip her nose even further into the air. "I _do_ hope you don't believe that he will be _helping _you, mudblood." She sneered, tilting her head slightly in Snape's direction. "Mean little thing, he is – has a reputation for hexing cauldrons so that people will leave him alone. No doubt he'll do the same to _you_, especially when he catches you cheating."

Lily opened her mouth to respond when a pleading voice from behind her cut her off. "Narcissa, please." Lily's head turned so fast she got whiplash, and she gawked as Snape stood with a near helpless look in his eyes regarding the beautiful blonde Slytherin girl, his arms full of potions ingredients. The only noise around them for a few seconds was the bustle of the other students in the room, before Narcissa finally made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat and turned back to her cauldron.

A painfully uncomfortable silence overtook the back of the room, and both Snape and Lily spent the next 20 minutes completely to themselves, preparing their ingredients and beginning their strengthening potion. It wasn't until Snape had began stirring his brew that he looked away from either his cauldron or his potions book, and in doing so he still was diligent in avoiding eye contact with Lily. As he stirred, his eyes began their nervous flit about the classroom; so Lily grudgingly continued on at her own, slower pace. It wasn't until she picked up her vial of salamander's blood that either acknowledged the others presence.

The sharp sound of a person clearing their throat halted Lily's hand as it stooped to pour the contents of the vial into her cauldron, and she glanced up at Snape, whose head was still bowed so that his hair hung in his face as he lifted his spoon from his cauldron and began slicing a preserved newt. "Add those three in the opposite order." He whispered, the blade of his knife passing deftly through the small, shriveled reptile.

"Excuse me?" Lily asked louder, the vial still in her hand.

"The three ingredients you're about to add – put the unicorn tears in first, then the fae wings and _then_ the salamander's blood, last." He hissed, his mouth barely opening as he tipped the contents of his cutting board over his cauldron.

"But the directions say…"

"Trust me." He said it so softly that Lily wasn't positive if she'd heard a sound, or simply read his lips as they formed the words. This time he glanced up at her through greasy tendrils of hair as he reached back for his spoon, and between the look in his eyes and the way the potion turned from acid green to a clear, sky blue – precisely as described in the book – she found herself setting the vial down and taking directions from the boy across from her, rather than the board and the book.

The final ten minutes of class found Lily immensely pleased with herself as she ladled a sample of what appeared to be a flawless potion from her cauldron and into a sample flask. She puzzled a bit as Snape seemed to suddenly begin fussing with his own cauldron, until professor Slughorn passed, stopping to scoop up her vial and display it to the class, loudly complimenting her on a marvelous brew… "Arguably the richest color I've seen in years, Ms. Evans – very good, very good." He said cheerfully, returning the vial to the desk and staring across it in shock.

"Oi… but Mr. Snape."

The whole of the class turned in a quick motion, it was the first time they'd ever heard words of such nature regarding the Slytherin. Lily glanced at his cauldron and did a double take – rather than a calm periwinkle, Snape's potion had turned an angry, violent orange color. He looked decidedly uncomfortable, glancing up at the potions professor who seemed as equally shocked as their classmates by this development.

"Erm…" Snape started, rubbing at the back of his hand and staring at the desk past the cauldron. "I realized that I had added a few too many of the fae wings; so I was trying to compensate and add a few porcupine quills to negate the effects, and…"

There was a tittering of laughter from the opposite corner of the room, where Lily knew Black and Potter had set up their cauldrons, and she shot them a glare as Snape began to sink in his chair.

"Well… er… honest mistake there." Slughorn suddenly smiled, finally catching on to Snape's discomfort. He brought a hand down on his shoulder and added with a grin, "I imagine it could have been the – new distraction." Slughorn gave Lily a small wink as the entire class joined the Marauders in a fit of quiet giggles, and Lily felt her own cheeks burn as Snape pulled his potions book in front of his face.

"Alright then, alright. That's enough." Slughorn said with a smile, returning back to the front of the class. "Please begin cleaning up, I'll have a clean classroom and samples on my desk within the next ten minutes."

It wasn't until Lily was certain that the noises from the rest of the class would drown her out that she cleared her throat. "You messed that up on purpose." Lily whispered, staring at Snape's book in disbelief. She knew his had been even better than hers only minutes before – it had been his cauldron she'd checked herself off of throughout the entire class period.

"No," Snape hissed, lowering his tome to his chin and looking over it. "No, I told you – my hand slipped and added too many of the wings at the end, and when I tried to correct it with additional quills, I buggered it up. It was a simple mistake." Despite the certainness of his words, Lily couldn't help but think that the rapidly spreading color in his cheeks betrayed his fibbing.

"Why would you…"

But before she could even finish the question Snape gave her a warning glare and turned his attention back to his potions book, as if to silently say once and for all that the argument over how he had 'buggered' up for the first time in five years of potions classes unintentionally.


End file.
